


Clyde can't handle that his best friend keeps secrets from him

by naminethewitch



Category: South Park
Genre: Alternate Universe, Clyde centered, Clyde is too curious, Craig gets angry, Established Relationship, M/M, Mental Hospital, OC sidecharacter, One Shot, Token gets dragged along
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 02:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13603722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naminethewitch/pseuds/naminethewitch
Summary: Craig rejects Bebe by stating that he's already in a relationship. Clyde doesn't take the news too well.





	Clyde can't handle that his best friend keeps secrets from him

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone ^^  
> This is my first time publishing a story that I've written in English, it's not my first language. It's not betaed, so I'd be grateful if you tell me when something isn't entirely correct.  
> This somehow ended up being more Clyde centered then I expected, but I hope it's still good.  
> Have fun!

**Clyde can't handle that his best friend keeps secrets from him**

It was the talk of the whole school: Craig Tucker had rejected Bebe Stevens’ confession. That alone though wasn’t the reason everyone was running wild. It was the reason he turned her down.

            “Tooookennn!” Clyde cried through the hallway, practically throwing himself at his friend. He was pouting and seemed to be close to tears. That wasn’t an unusual occurrence; Clyde was a crybaby after all. So Token only sighed, not even bothering to pry the brunette off of him.

            “What happened now?” he asked.

            “It’s Craaaig! He just turned Bebe down!” Clyde whined which confused his friend.

            “Why is that a bad thing? I thought you still have a thing for her?”

            “I dooooooo. But that’s not the problem!”

            “Then what is it?”

            “Craig turned her down because he’s already in a relationship! He never told me he had a girlfriend! Did he tell you?” Clyde looked up at Token with big, wet eyes, heartbroken about the fact that his best friend had kept something so important from him.

            “No, he didn’t. Are you sure he was serious? Maybe he just said it to get the girls off his back,” Token shrugged while removing Clyde’s arms from around him. The brunette straightened at his suggestions.

            “You’re right! I didn’t think of that!”

            ‘Of course you didn’t’, Token thought. Clyde wasn’t the smartest pea in the pot and prone to get overemotional. After his last breakup he cried for four hours straight while Token and Craig tried to calm him down. But as annoying as he could be, Clyde had a heart of gold and was a good friend, so the two could deal with his outburst.

            Now that Clyde had cheered up again, Token finished his business at his locker and started heading to his next class. The brunette followed, since they shared the next period. Craig would be there, too. Clyde filled the walk to the classroom with mindless chatter, Token only listening with one ear and humming every now and then to signal that he was somewhat paying attention.

            They arrived relatively early, only a few others already there. Craig was not one of them. The two boys took their usual seats and continued talking. Now Token was actually paying attention and contributed more than small sounds of agreement.

            Much to Clyde’s disappointment, their missing friend arrived at the same time as their teacher, leaving no room for him to ask about the rejection. He had to wait till lunch and because of his impatience he ended up spending most of the class staring at Craig instead of paying attention.

            As soon as the bell rung, Clyde was of his seat and stood in front of Craig, who stared at him unimpressed.

            “What?” he asked with his usual deadpan voice and expressionless face. Clyde rolled his eyes.

            “You know what! Tell me why you rejected Bebe!”

            “If you already know about that, then you should also know the reason,” Craig said, raising an eyebrow.

            “Well yeah, but that had to be a lie, since you would’ve told us” -he pointed at himself and then at Token behind him, who was leaning against a nearby desk- ”if you got yourself a girlfriend, right?” Craig stood and swung his bag over his shoulder. Then he looked Clyde straight in the eye.

            “I wasn’t lying. I’m already in a relationship.” Without missing a beat he turned and headed out of the door, leaving a shocked Clyde and a surprised Token behind. The brunette turned around to look at his remaining friend and they just stared at one another for who-knows-how-long. Then they quickly grabbed their own bags and hurried after Craig.

            They found him in the cafeteria, already with his food alone at a table. Everyone else was throwing glances at him and whispering to one another. He didn’t seem bothered by it. Clyde would have just walked over and bombarded Craig with questions, but Token held him back, insisting on getting food first. By the time they took their seat at Craig’s table, he was already done eating and was typing on his phone. Clyde was bouncing on his seat a little and couldn’t hold himself back for long.

            “Oh come on Craig, don’t be an ass!” he whined.

            “How exactly am I being an ass? You just come over here and start insulting me. If you ask me, you’re the one who’s being an ass,” Craig looked up, staring at the brunette unimpressed.

            “You know, he’s kinda right…”

            “Shut up Token, you want to know it just as much as me!” Token just shrugged and started eating his food, leaving Craig to deal with Clyde’s whining alone, which lead to him being flipped off.

            “So what do you wanna know so badly?” Craig asked, eyes back on his phone.

            “Don’t act like you don’t know! Tell us about that girlfriend of yours!”

            “No,” Craig simply said, apparently messaging someone. Clyde tried to sneak a glance, but Craig was faster and turned his phone away.

            “Why not?!?” The brunette pouted. “Why didn’t you tell us about her in the first place? We’re your best friends you know. You’re supposed to tell us stuff like that!”

            “I have my reasons. And I have the right to decide who I tell what, so get off my back.” Craig shot Clyde a glare and flipped him off. Then he pocketed his phone and stood up. Clyde was about to stop him from leaving, but Token hold him back.

            “Leave it. He won’t tell us either way, so don’t make him mad unnecessarily,” he said.

            “But-“

            “Clyde, come on, you know I’m right.”

            “Fiiiiiiiineeeeee. But I’m not gonna drop this so easily,” Clyde warned Craig, who just flipped him off once again, picked up his tray and left the cafeteria. The brunette stared after him. Token sighed, this couldn’t end well.

 

            A day later his hunch turned out to be true. Clyde had decided that if Craig wasn’t going to tell them about his girlfriend than he’s going to find it out himself. Which meant that Clyde dragged Token along to stalk their friend until he went to meet her, however long that would take. Luckily for them it was Saturday and needless to say that Token wasn’t happy with the plan, but he’d rather tag along then letting Clyde go alone. Without supervision, the brunette would be sure to cause trouble.

            That was how they ended up on a bus to Denver, trying their best not to be spotted by Craig on the other side of the vehicle. They were lucky that there were quite a lot of people who seemed to have business in Denver today and that Craig seemed to be more interested in his phone than in looking around.

            The trip was long, around one hour, but they eventually arrived in the neighbouring town. Craig got off and didn’t hesitate a second before setting his course, it was obvious he had taken this trip a lot of times before. Clyde and Token followed behind, careful to keep their distance so they wouldn’t be spotted.

            “This is ridiculous,” Token muttered after they had walked for around 15 minutes.

            “Shh, he might hear you,” Clyde whispered, his eyes never leaving Craig.

            “No he won’t. He has headphones in and you know how loud he turns the music up.”

            “Still.” Token rolled his eyes, but kept quiet. When Clyde got like this there was no arguing with him. All that Token could do was damage control. Man, he really hoped this wouldn’t blow up in their faces.

            5 minutes later it seemed as if they had finally reached their destination. Craig entered a building that gave off a somewhat hospital like vibe.

            “What the hell is this place?” Clyde wondered out loud, looking around. There was a stone path towards the entrance of the building that leads around a fountain. There were benches to the side as well as other paths that wound around the building, which seemed to be surrounded by a well-kept garden.

            “It’s a mental hospital,” Token said. He seemed pale.

            “What do you mean?” Clyde asked confused. He couldn’t have heard right.

            “It’s a hospital for people who aren’t mentally stable, Clyde!” Token shot him a sharp look.

            “What gave you that idea? It may be a regular hospital…”

            “There’s a sign here.”

            “Oh…” They fell silent, both confused as to what Craig was doing here.

            “Do you think… his girlfriend is a nutjob?” Token smacked Clyde on the head for that. “Ow, what the hell was that for?”

            “You don’t just call people nutjobs, asshole!”

            “Like you never called anyone that!”

            “This is different! These people are actually sick!” Clyde pouted, but didn’t argue any further. He didn’t like mad Token and this was no place for fighting, even he knew that.

            “Let’s just go,” Token sighed.

            “What? No! We can’t just go!”

            “We don’t have much of a choice, do we? We can’t just barge in there!”

            “Why not?”

            “Are you kidding me? You wanna go in there and then what? This isn’t like a normal hospital where you can just go wherever you want!”

            “So we just say that we brought something Craig forgot or something.”

            “Like hell that would work!”

            “Do you have any better ideas then?”

            “Yes, let’s go home before Craig finds out we’re here!” They were shouting by this point and so focused on each other, that they didn’t notice that they weren’t alone anymore.

            “Excuse me, Sirs, but could I ask you to take this elsewhere? You are upsetting our patients.” Both boys flinched at the sudden interruption. Before them stood a girl, maybe one or two years older than them. Her hair was similar to Bebe’s, but a few shades brighter and shorter. She was smiling, but her eyes were sharp, a silent warning not to cause any more trouble. Clyde was the first to recover.

            “We’re so sorry. We didn’t mean to cause a fuss. I’m Clyde by the way.” Token rolled his eyes. The brunette wore that smile he put on whenever he was trying to flirt. The girl was visibly not impressed, but she kept smiling; probably part of the job in order to seem polite.

            “Emily. I’m working the reception today, so I have to keep it quiet for our patients. If you don’t have any business here, I must ask you to leave.”

            “Oh, we do have business!” Clyde was fast to interject. Token sighed, but didn’t interfere. Instead he buried his hands in his pockets and turned to study the building.

            “Really?” Emily raised her eyebrow. “Do you want to visit somebody or do you want to register somebody new?”

            “Neither actually. Our friend Craig forgot something and asked us to bring it,” Clyde lied, still keeping his flirting face.

            “Did he now?”

            “Yeah, it’s a gift for his girlfriend.” Token glanced at Emily to see how she would react. He didn’t like the look on her face. It was a smug expression; she had dropped her politeness completely. She crossed her arms in front of her.

            “Now I feel bad for Craig, really. It seems as though his best friends don’t know him at all.” She sighed overly dramatic and shook her head. Clyde looked at her dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape.

            “What do you mean?” Token asked carefully. She turned to him with a smile.

            “I don’t think it’s my place to tell you, so I won’t. But don’t worry; after he hears that you followed him here, I’m sure he’ll tell you. Now I must ask you to leave.”

            “What? Why?” Clyde asked confused.

            “You lied to me just now. You have no business here and I can’t have you causing any more trouble with your bickering, so go home. Or I’ll call security on you.” With that she turned and returned inside. Clyde stared after her. Token sighed and grabbed his arm.

            “Come on, I don’t wanna be dragged away by security.”

            “But but but…”

            “Let it go, dude.”

 

            Token ended up going to Clyde’s house afterwards. The brunette was so confused that Token didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave him alone and his father was working the night shift. Clyde just lay on his bed rambling on and on about why he was confused by the events of this afternoon. Token tried to explain it to him, but some questions he couldn’t answer, not having understood some of the situation himself.

            It was around 9pm when the doorbell rang. The boys shared a confused glance, but they both made their way downstairs.

            “Who is it?” Clyde called through the thick wood.

            “Open up, shithead! You’re in big trouble!” That was definitely Craig’s voice and he sounded pissed. Clyde looked at Token, silently asking if he should dare open the door to let a furious Craig inside.

            “Just do it, dude. You gonna have to face him eventually and better here than in school on Monday, right?”            The brunette sighed, but complied.

            “Craig, my dude, what’s up?” he tried to joke when he came face to face with his friend. He got flipped off immediately.

            “Shut up Donovan,” Craig said as he pushed past him. “Good, you’re here, too,” he added when he noticed Token standing in the hallway.

            “Look, dude, I’m sorry, but…” Token tried to explain, but Craig cut him off.

            “Get your asses in the living room first. I’m not gonna discuss this at the door.” He proceeded to slip off his shoes and hung up his jacket. Then he went ahead and went to the living room. Clyde closed the door and exchanged a worried glance with Token, then they joined him. Craig had set himself into an armchair and signalled his friends to take a seat on the couch.

            “So would you like to explain to me, how you ended up fighting in front of the mental hospital I was visiting?” Craig started, after they both sat down.

            “Clyde wanted to know who your girlfriend is, so he forced me to come along and stalk you,” Token explained.

            “Wha- I didn’t force you to anything!” Clyde protested immediately.

            “You said you would go alone if I didn’t come along. There was no way I could let you do that.”

            “Why not!?”

            “Because you would have done something stupid!”

            “Would not!”

            “Would too!”

            “Shut up!” Craig yelled over the bickering. Clyde crossed his arms and pouted, Token just rolled his eyes.

            “You are such an asshole Clyde, I swear. This is why I didn’t want to tell you in the first place. I knew you’d make a big deal out of this. That or you’d tell everyone since you just can’t your mouth shut, can you?” Craig said sharply. The brunette flinched and teared up.

            “Don’t you dare cry, this is your own fault!” Craig accused further. Clyde bit his lip and turned away, but didn’t say anything.

            “Look, Craig, I get that you’re angry and you have every right to be, we really fucked up, but could you please explain why you were at that hospital in the first place?” Token interjected, which earned him a glare.

            “Fine. I was there to visit someone.”

            “Your girlfriend, right?” Token asked, since Clyde didn’t seem to be able to talk without starting to cry.

            “No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

            “Huh? But you said…” Now the brunette spoke up, apparently forgetting that he was supposed to be upset.

            “I’m gay.” Silence. Both Token and Clyde stared at their friend with big eyes.

            “…No way,” Clyde breathed out eventually. “Since when?”

            “Since always, you idiot. I realised it in 2nd grade, but I didn’t think it was something worth discussing until I actually got a boyfriend.”

            “Then why didn’t you tell us when you got together with..?” Token interjected.

            “Tweek. His name is Tweek Tweak.”

            “Are you serious? THAT’s his name?” Clyde asked and Token elbowed him. “Ow!”

            “Of course I’m serious.”

            “The name seems familiar somehow,” Token wondered aloud, trying to jog his memory.

            “That’s probably because his parents were all over the news last year. Remember the coffee shop that had their drinks laced with meth?”

            “Yeah, that was really freaky!” Clyde exclaimed.

            “And the owners of that shop were Tweek’s parents?” Token asked, ignoring the brunette. Craig nodded.

            “Yeah, that’s them. They were sent to jail and Tweek was sent to rehab. Though the meth wasn’t his biggest problem. His parents had given him coffee to drink since he was two years old and did some other shit, which left him an anxious mess with an addiction to caffeine. They transferred him to that hospital after all the meth was out of his system and it was obvious that he needed help from a professional.”

            “So how did you two meet if he was in that hospital since last year? You didn’t know him before, right?” Token inquired.

            “I worked there throughout the last summer vacation. I mostly worked in the kitchen or helped cleaning, but at one point there was a bit of emergency and they were understaffed, so I had to watch Tweek for a few minutes. We started talking and one thing lead to another and we became friends. After I stopped working, I kinda missed him, so went to visit and I ended up asking him out,” Craig shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. Well to him it may not be, but to Clyde it definitely was.

            “You never said anything about working in a mental hospital,” the brunette pouted.

            “I told you I was working and you never bothered to ask where,” Craig pointed out. Clyde grumbled something along the lines of ‘Because I thought it was something boring like a supermarket or something’ under his breath, but left it at that.

            “You still didn’t tell us, why you didn’t tell us about Tweek before,” Token reminded Craig.

            “Well besides Clyde being a drama queen about stuff like that, I didn’t want to pull Tweek into the spotlight like that. Not to mention we’ve only been dating for like two weeks or so, I wanted to make sure it was going to work out before making it a big deal.”

            “Does your family know?” Token asked then.

            “Yeah. I came out to my mom pretty much as soon as I realised I wasn’t straight. She was cool with it. I told my dad about a year later, but I don’t think he really took me seriously until I told them about Tweek. He has a bit of trouble really accepting it, but he isn’t against it either. And Trisha just kinda always knew? I never explicitly told her, maybe Mom did, and we didn’t talk about it, but when I said I had a boyfriend she congratulated me and that was it.” Clyde and Token nodded. Then silence fell over them, as the two tried to process all of the information they’ve been given.

            “Just to make this as clear as possible: Neither of you is telling this to anyone. I don’t want them to gossip about Tweek, he has enough problems as is. I don’t need our entire school speculating about him, got it?” Craig threatened, staring both of his friends in the eyes.

            “Then maybe you shouldn’t have announced your relationship like that,” Clyde chimed in. Craig flipped him off.

            “She wanted a reason, so I gave her one. I won’t tell anyone more than that and neither will you,” he said sternly. “Promise me.”

            “I promise,” Token said.

            “Promise,” Clyde agreed. Then he groaned. “This is going to be sooo hard tough.”

            “I’m really glad you’re single at the moment,” Craig sighed. “You can’t keep anything from your girlfriends.”

 

            A week later Clyde was back on that bus, but this time he was with Craig. He wanted to meet Tweek and Craig reluctantly said yes after his boyfriend had given the ok. They were close to Denver now and Clyde had trouble sitting still, much to the annoyance of his friend.

            “Would you calm down already? It’s not that big a deal.”

            “Not a big deal? Are you kidding me, dude? I’m about to meet your first boyfriend who had one hell of a life so far!”

            “You better not bring up his parents, got it? It’s a sore subject for him,” Craig warned in his normal monotone voice.

            “Alright, I’ll be careful about what I say,” Clyde sighed and finally stilled in his seat. In his excitement he had nearly forgotten that there was a reason as to why Tweek was in a mental hospital.

            They arrived soon after and on the 20 minute walk to the clinic, Craig told Clyde a bit more about what and what not to talk about. As they entered the building, they were greeted by Emily behind the reception.

            “Hey C, for once not coming alone I see.” The two fist bumped. Much to Clyde’s surprise they seemed close.

            “Yeah, he wouldn’t shut up about meeting Tweek and after I asked Tweek, he said to bring him along.”

            “I see. Well, have fun. And don’t cause him to have a panic attack, loud mouth!” Clyde wanted to say something, but Craig was already leaving the room, so instead he hurried after him.

            “You two seem to get along well,” he commented, a bit sour.

            “Well yeah. We worked together for almost 3 months after all, so we had a lot of time to talk. Em’s chill.” The brunette was a bit jealous, but swallowed it down as they reached the visitor room. The room was wide and nicely decorated. A lot of tables stood around, as well as paint, board games and other entertainment stuff. They weren’t the only ones visiting and Clyde did his best not to stare. Craig had told him not to, most of the patients didn’t like that.

            “Hello Craig, Tweek will be right out, ok?” One of the nurses smiled at them. Craig just nodded and sat down at a vacant table. Clyde sat across from him. They waited for only two minutes in which Clyde tried to look around without setting anybody off. Then a door on the other side of where they had come in opened and a boy with wild blond hair entered. He looked around anxiously, kneading his hands together.

           Then his eyes found Craig’s and a small smile appeared on his face. And as Clyde turned to his friend, he found a similar one on his face. In that moment the brunette understood that what those two had was something special and he couldn’t help but smile along. As Tweek hurried over, Craig stood up and rounded the table.

           “Hey Craig,” the blonde greeted as he reached them.

          “Hey babe,” Craig replied, pulled the other into a hug and pressed a kiss into his mane. Tweek hummed in content. They stayed like that until Clyde cleared his throat to remind them that he was there, too. As if he had been stung by a bee, Tweek let go and turned to him, his face a bit more pink then before.

          “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. You must be Clyde. It’s, ngh, nice to meet you.” The blonde offered him a shaky hand that the other gratefully took.

        “No need to apologize. I don’t get to see Craig so… caring, I guess, often,” he said and winked at Tweek. Craig flipped him off. Then he took the blonde’s hand and pulled him into the seat across from Clyde and next to himself. They kept their hands linked.

         “So honey, how have you been?” Craig asked.

         “Good. Dr. Cameron said I’m doing really well and that I can probably be discharged soon,” Tweek smiled.

         “That’s great, babe,” Craig said and kissed Tweek’s cheek. The blonde blushed but his smile widened.

         “Are you going to live with relatives then? You’re not 18 yet, are you?” Clyde asked curiously.

        “Oh, um…” Tweek’s blush deepened and he avoided eye contact, instead opting to stare at the table.

      “He has an aunt in South Dakota, but my mom is trying to convince her to let Tweek stay with us,” Craig explained, while his boyfriend squeaked out of embarrassment. Clyde grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. Craig flipped him off.

 

       They continued to talk for another two hours, chatting about hobbies, school, pets (Craig couldn’t wait to introduce Tweek to Stripe, but he wasn’t allowed to bring her to the hospital) and other stuff. Clyde and Tweek got along really well and the brunette agreed to come by again soon, though Craig said that he’d promised to take Token next time. Clyde gave the couple a few minutes alone at the end and went downstairs, to see if Emily was still there. To his disappointment she was not, so he waited outside on a bench.

       “Let’s go,” Craig said as he walked by Clyde shortly after without stopping.

       “Hey, you were the one who left me waiting!” the brunette complained and was flipped off for his trouble. They walked quietly alongside each other for a while, until Craig spoke up.

       “So?” Clyde blinked at him, confused.

       “’So’ what?”

       “What do you think?”

       “About Tweek?” Craig nodded sharply without looking at Clyde.

       “He’s great. Definitely a bit weird, but not in a bad way. I think you two fit each other quite well.” Craig nodded again, though this time he seemed more relaxed. He even smiled a bit. Clyde grinned.

       “It’s funny how much different you act around him, it’s almost as if you’re not really a robot.” That earned him a punch in the shoulder, which made him laugh.

      “Shut up Donovan,” Craig grumbled with a small blush on his face.

      “But man, I can’t wait for Tweek to get out of there! We’re going to have so much fun, just think of all the things we can do! Like…” Clyde began to ramble and Craig tuned him out, thinking to himself about what he would want to do with his boyfriend after he gets discharged. A small smile stole itself onto his face. This was going to be great.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading this!  
> Please leave a comment, I'd help me a lot!


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